Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Complaints



This morning I met my best friend for coffee and we were talking about everything that is going on in our lives. Though life is often challanging for both of us (in the same ways) we spoke about the blessings that we DO have. We remembered back to a day several months ago when we were sitting at a table with about 6 other mothers-as we sat there, each mom at the table let out her frustrations with life, husbands and children. One mom began to complain about having to go BACK to "All Children's Hospital" the following week to have tubes put into her child's ears (for chronic ear infections) AGAIN! I can TOTALLY relate to this Mom's frustrations as "ACH" has felt like a second home to me many times but, what shocked me was when another mom (new to our group) spoke up and told us that her 5 year old son was currently admitted into that very same hospital. When we ask for more info she explained that her son was dying with cancer! WOW! Here we were all wallowing in our self pitty and this mom just sat quitely and listened to us. That day reaffirmed for me that there is ALWAYS someone else who has it worse than I do. I learned this lesson for the first time when I sat in that hospital holding my baby girl (Madeline) and I got the news that she had suffered a hemmorage in her brain at only 8 days old (after being born with no complications, ON her due date and sent home with a clean bill of health 2 days after she was born). Only a mother would understand the pain that sort of news brings-but I quickly learned that the patient next door to her room (also named Madeline) was dying. When we left the hospital (about a week later) were were warned about the dangers and the complications that her hemmorage could cause. We were told that she may have brain damage (and that only time would tell) and that she may never walk due to ANOTHER / seperate issue with her spinal cord. Praise God that He has brought her through ALL of that (and MUCH more) with NO side effects-in fact, I often tell people thst she heard EVERY word that the doctors spoke over her and she made it up in her mind to defy all of them! She walked at NINE months old (the youngest of all my kids) and she EXCELS in her school! Ok, back to my point-that time was very hard for me but I tried to keep the right perspective knowing that so many moms in that hospital would have loved to switch places with me. Our son, Spencer, was found to be hearing impaired at 2 years old-the ONLY thing that has gotten me through that (and his more recent diagnosis of "auditory proccessing disorder") is remembering back to the days spent with Maddie in the hospital (and Brooke when she had kidney surgery-I told you it felt like a second home for me!) and remembering that life could be MUCH worse. So, when I think about the situation I am in with my health and when the ends do not quite meet at the end of the month I am going to try to remember the blessings in my life-there really are so many!!

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